2012 Remainder Reviews - Testament - Dark Roots of Earth

[TageRyche]

Testament
Dark Roots of Earth
Nuclear Blast Records - 2012
http://www.testamentlegions.com

The Bay Area thrashers returned with their follow up to The Formation of Damnation and they unleash one molten track after another. The 9 track CD (a deluxe version has a bonus DVD and 4 extra tracks. Those are three covers and an extended version of "Throne of Thorns") shows the band playing in your face thrash, pure metal tracks and put together a much slower number that still manages to remain heavy and powerful.

I enjoyed the way that particular track, "Cold Embrace" started out with an almost peaceful sounding guitar intro with the band working their way into the song. Three minutes into the sound the song gets much heavier and then the song closes out as it began.

The song "Native Blood" finds singer Chuck Billy paying homage to his Native American ancestry. You can see the video for the song below. It is a fast paced number that finds the singer belting out lyrics with power and clarity. He co-wrote the lyrics with Del James (who co-wrote the lyrics for 5 other songs on the disc).

With guitarists Eric Peterson and Alex Skolnick writing all the music (the CD booklet helpfully points out which guitarist plays which solo in the songs), the thunderous riffs come flying at you fast and furious. With Gene Hoglan (who played on the band's Demonic CD) back on the drum kit, replacing the departed Paul Bostaph, the rhythm foundation with bassist Greg Christian is outstanding.

The title track for the album starts off with a heavy and methodic pacing but things pick up during the chorus of the song. While I started to get a bit worried towards the end of the album when "Man Kills Mankind" and "Throne of Thorns" proved to be tracks that did little to move me, I got a great closing track in the speedy "Last Stand for Independence."

While the more straight up metal songs are nice to hear, for some reason with Testament, I've always seemed to like their full on thrashy and brutal sounding songs. And here, we get two songs that make you feel like you have been launched from a catapult...straight into a brick wall! And yes that is a good thing in my book. (I have linked both of the following songs below as well).

The opening song "Rise Up" is unrelenting and gets the blood boiling from first guitar riffs and the on point vocals from Billy.

However, the true standout track on this disc and the track I most associate with being one of Testament's all time greatest songs is "True American Hate". The vicious and attacking vocals and music combine to show the band at their best. The guitar solos are a nice change of pace from the brutality evidenced in the rest of the song.

By the way, in case anyone wondering the meaning behind the song and lyrics for "True American Hate", Chuck Billy had this to say in an interview with Decibel magazine:

"[It] was kind of inspired by when we sent all our troops overseas, and we were just seeing in the news when all that was going on a lot of young kids, under 10 years old, out there with their families burning American flags. And that was a pretty shocking thing to see, to see that generation, a kid that young being taught to hate that much. It makes you think what's going to happen, 10 to 15 years from now, when the majority of these kids have just been raised to hate. It struck me as a little odd."

So it was a long time getting around to listening to this album. But now that I have, I like the majority of what I've heard. As I get older (though not quite too old to rock and roll YET), I find myself less and less able to enjoy thrash metal. But as I head towards the old folks home, I have found that Testament really knows how to craft their albums to feature the thrash riffage we have come to expect and yet still infuse a sense of melodic power to give them something that sets them apart from the majority of the field.

I dug the album and really think that this will end up being one of their finest offerings when all is said and done.

GRADE: A MINUS

[Jon]

Nice review and now everyone shall know why it was my top Original Rock Album (At least 25 years since their first album) , Metal Album and Best Metal Song ("True American Hate") of last year as well as #3 in my albums of the year. Shows I know sumthin'! 

[RJhog (Admin)]

Yep, good review.  I don't even care for thrash metal anymore (for the most part I was never a huge fan to begin with), but this album is really good.  I'd have to say I like the title track and Rise Up the best.